A jury convicted Bagola, 20, of the first-degree murders in September, the Grand Forks Herald reported. The life sentence was mandatory. The only question was whether the judge would order Bagola to serve them concurrently. Despite the prosecutor's urging, the judge declined to impose consecutive sentences.

Mike Vega points to the area of sidewalk in Madison, Wis., Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012, where he discovered a starving 15-year-old after she escaped from her abusive father and stepmother last week. The severely malnourished teenager had been forced to stay in an unfinished basement for years and an alarm would sound if she went upstairs, police records say. The teen told authorities she ate what she could find in the garbage and on the floor of her father and stepmother's Madison home. Sometimes she was made to eat her feces and drink her own urine, according to a police affidavit. (AP Photo/Todd Richmond)